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Diners: Hamie’s

Hamie’s Diner on Beechwood Ave is the third attempt in our series to find great, irony-free diners. Hamie’ s lacks the homemade, family-run charm of our previous finds but makes up for it with simple, classic diner fare and friendly wait staff that make you feel at home immediately. The diner is medium sized, seats about 60, and is pleasantly busy with an audible but not overwhelming din on this sunny Sunday morning in early July. Vinyl booths are smallish but counter stools and a few cafe tables offer alternatives.

Street parking is easy to find this particular morning. We head inside take a window seat. Our fellow diners are clearly locals, not tourists. Hamie’s is a neighbourhood joint. Our waitress, pleasant and efficient, welcomes us and gets us coffee and juice. Juice comes in a bottle. Coffee is thin and not to my liking, but I am hardly a connoisseur. Don’t go by me, I’m a Timmie’s girl. We peruse the menu of diner breakfast classics for the most part, and I will forgive the gender friendly Lumberjack/Jill selections and Atkin’s specials. We both order the Lumberjack breakfast which includes two pancakes, home fries, toast, bacon, ham or sausage and two eggs. Mine is coming with bacon and white toast, Rob’s with sausage and rye toast. The rye toast is $1.00 extra and jam for the toast is 25 cents. I don’t care about the money but this nickle-and-diming leaves a negative impression. Add 25 cents to to the cost of all your menu items and put jam on the table. After placing our orders I noticed a small sign that said cash only. This belongs on the front door.

Our food arrives very quickly. Eggs are perfect, pancakes are rich and fluffy – this means they have a kickass short order cook back there. Our toast is well- buttered – I forego jam because it annoys me to ask and since the eggs are a perfect over medium I’ll use it to soak up yolk. My bacon is good but could be a little crisper for my taste. Rob’s good quality breakfast links are split open and fried on the flat top which makes them especially tasty. The home fries, pan-fried not deep fried, are very good. No throw away garnishes on the plate which pleases me. On the whole, breakfast was very good and we would return if we were in the area. $26.20 plus tip.